A Passive Aggressive Evil
by Maxoth
Summary: In a time when Pokemon Heroes vanquish those who do evil; a time when Legendary Pokemon are awakened, and Champions are born, One team will stand in the shadows. In the criminal underground, things are about to get ugly. Can Taz solve the mystery in time?
1. Chapter 1

Authors note: This is my first piece of fiction I have allowed anyone to read.

I do not own Pokemon

Please review!

DT

He awoke suddenly to the purposefully irritating chirp of a small device that rested beside his pillow. Lifting his head, he depressed the button on the side of the phone, which snapped open, and put the headset to his ear.

"Taz Boroughs," he said quietly, forcing his mind out of it's groggy state. At the foot of the bed, a large, canine head lifted, and he imagined the two eyes looking at him expectantly through the darkness.

"Taz, it's mom.."

"Hey. What's up? It's like…" he pressed the light button on his watch. "It's four in the morning."

"Taz, Professor Birch's lab caught on fire sometime in the last hour or so. Norman and several trainers from Oldale are here, but it will take several hours to get rid of."

"What? What about the Professor?"

"We can't be sure if anyone was inside the lab when it caught fire, and no one has heard from him since yesterday morning."

Taz's mind had kicked into overdrive, and he mentally reviewed everything he knew about fires.

"I'll be there soon." He promised, snapping the phone shut.

Ten minutes later, Taz emerged from the small building clothed in his usual jeans and black leather jacket over a blue t-shirt. On his hip, a PT 1911 .45 caliber pistol sat in its holster, alongside a pouch that held two extra clips. Right behind him, his trusty Mightyena followed.

Taz held up a sphere about the size of a grapefruit and spoke.

"Electivire, watch over the lab, okay?"

Elevtivire, a man-shaped Pokemon almost as tall as himself, nodded as Taz replaced the pokeball on his belt.

"I'll be back later." Then, he held up two more pokeballs, with one, recalling Mightyena, and the other, he called out Skarmory, a sturdy, steel-armored bird. Wrapped around the bird's chest and back was a simple leather saddle that consisted of a loop of leather to hold onto, and two smaller loops for the feet.

"Skarmory," he addressed the bird, approaching the big bird. "We're off to Littleroot. As fast as you can. Deal?" Skarmory merely nodded, crouching so Taz could climb aboard before launching into the sky. They climbed rapidly, Skarmory's powerful wings carrying them ever higher with each stroke, and began in the direction of Littleroot, where their next mystery would unfold.


	2. Chapter 2

Thirty minutes of fast flying later, Littleroot Town came into view, and at it's heart, an enormous blaze. From this height, Taz could only just make out Norman, surrounded by the trainers of his gym, fighting the blaze with their Pokemon.

As they grew closer to the ground, Taz noticed several Pokemon without trainers; wild Pokemon had come to do their part in putting out the fire. As Skarmory flared his wings, Taz freed himself from the saddle, and leapt to the ground as his Pokemon lighted down. Sprinting to the blaze, Taz stopped alongside a trainer whom he had never seen before, whose Lombre and Poliwhirl spat water by the gallons, and pulled a Pokeball from his belt before stopping. Sending his fire-type partner in would put Infernape at risk.

Taz moved away to find Norman, the local Gym Leader, forcing himself to accept that his friend and mentor may be gone. Spotting Norman, Taz made his way through the crowd of Norman's loyal trainers to the tall man, who greeted him grimly.

"Taz. Sorry to see you under the circumstances kid."

"I need the fire out as soon as possible"

"I'm doing all I can…"

"Do more!" Taz yelled. Norman blinked before his expression softened.

"Look, Birch was my friend too. And I'm going to do everything in my power to find the people that did this. But right now, I have a job to do. Rest, Taz. You may well need it."

Taz turned on his heel and moved away, finding a spot just out of the heat radius and settling down, releasing Mightyena next to him. Skarmory settled on the other side.

Four long, exhausting, hours later, the sun rose over the trees, casting it's light upon the badly charred remains of a once beautiful laboratory, and the many trainers who had fought the blaze were making their ways home. Norman's underlings worked tirelessly, sealing off a perimeter with yellow caution tape, while Norman himself interviewed the woman that had seen the fire and reported it.

Taz and his team, however, were already busy. Haunter, his small, purple ghost type Pokemon, swooped freely, a camera in her hands, stopping occasionally to snap pictures of whatever her trained eyes deemed worthy. Infernape moved carefully, small, plastic markers in hand, searching for potential evidence among the ruin. Mightyena walked alongside Taz, who wore a borrowed hard hat and carried a camera around his neck. Upon his shouler, Pichu sat, his tiny magnifying glass made by the glassmaker of Fallabor Town in hand. Together, they moved through the remains several times, until Taz was certain, before moving out.

Making his way to Norman, Taz motioned for the Gym Leader to join him, and once alone, spoke in an undertone.

"The professor isn't here."


	3. Chapter 3

First off, I'd like to thank you guys for making it this far! I realize that I kinda started this off a bit strong, but I have my entire idea laid out now, so I think it will come together nicely.

Thanks for sticking with Taz and me, and please review!

"You're sure?"

"Positive. We went through the lab four times. All we know is that the fire started in his room, some kind of explosion….." Taz trailed off as the call of Infernape sounded from within the charred building.

Taz spun around, Mightyena following closely as he began to run towards the building, replacing the hard hat. Behind him, Norman snatched a second hard hat off of one of his gym trainers, placing it on his own head as he followed Taz in. Mightyena moved ahead, leading them to the back, where Infernape stood in the remains of Professor Birch's bedroom.

"What is it, buddy?"

Infernape stepped aside and pointed at an object on the floor that had been hidden behind his leg previously.

The object was badly charred, but seemed familiar, though Taz could not place why. It certainly had not come from the lab.

Taz moved closer as Norman spoke.

"Roxanne would know better than I, but that looks an awful lot like a Bonsly."

Taz slipped his jacket off and lifted the small creature into his arms. Then, the Bonsly opened one of its eyes.

"Alive!" Taz exclaimed, rising to show his companions.

"It needs medical attention, and fast." Norman replied.

"Good work Infernape! Gather up all of your evidence, package it up right, and let's go." Taz said to the fire-type monkey Pokémon.

Infernape nodded and went about his work while Taz, Norman, and Mightyena all left with the tiny Bonsly. Once outside, Taz handed the injured Pokémon off to Norman.

"Take it to the Pokémon Center in Oldale Town, I will meet you there. We have to finish up our work here first."

"You got it." Norman said, taking the Pokémon in his arms and moving quickly down the path to Oldale.

Taz watched his friend go for a moment before moving back into the burned-out building, his mind racing. Questions burned through his mind.

What had happened? Where did the young rock-type Pokémon fit in? Where was the Professor? Was he alive?

As he carefully lifted charred document folders from the desk, placing them into a brown paper bag, he continued to ask himself the same questions, coming to the same answer every time: the only way he could know was to find the answers himself from the evidence he had been given.

As they finished gathering the meager evidence, Taz recalled all of his Pokémon except the large wolf-like Mightyena, and the small yellow rodent, Pichu, both of whom hated being in their Poke balls any more than was necessary, and began the short trip to Oldale Town. The road was quiet, and they encountered no wild Pokémon, which Taz attributed to the unusual amount of activity on the road over the past eight hours. As the Pokémon Center came into sight through the trees, Taz smiled. Many years ago, he had seen Oldale Town for the very first time with his trusty Mightyena, then only a Poochyena, at his side as they embarked on their great adventure that had led them to where they were now.

As they drew closer, the Center's doors opened, and Norman emerged, noticed Taz, and walked over immediately.

"I was just about to call you. The little tyke's condition is getting worse, and the doctors aren't feeling great about his chances."

Taz sped up in response, Norman at his side, and entered the building, allowing Norman to take the lead as they moved to the Bonsly's room. There, Taz found the small, badly burned Pokémon attached to several machines, including an IV drip, a respirator, and a heart monitor. It tugged at his heartstrings to see the young Pokémon was suffering.

In that moment, Taz swore silently, both to himself and the small Pokémon, that he would hunt down the one responsible for this, and see him brought to justice.

A doctor entered, pulling Taz from his momentary daze.

"Detective Boroughs, Norman, I wanted to thank you for your effort in helping this poor little one. I can't say for sure if he will make it, but what I can say is that he most certainly wouldn't have had it not been for you bringing him here."

"Doctor, can you tell me anything about his condition?"

"My guess would have to be that he was there in the lab for some reason, perhaps he wandered in before the fire started, and couldn't find his way back out. At any rate, he was in there from the beginning to have such extensive burns."

Taz's mind raced, trying to put the pieces into the puzzle before speaking.

"Thank you doctor." Addressing Norman, he said, "I have to get to work. Keep me posted on his status?"

"I'll have one of my trainers stay watch through the night."

Taz nodded and moved out of the room and back through the doors to the Center.

"Alright, time to get back home." He said, recalling Pichu and Mightyena and releasing Skarmory.

"We got work to do."

Back at the Lab, Taz tore into the evidence with a will. First, he tackled the document folder. Though he doubted that it was anything of importance, he was determined not to allow any potential evidence to go untouched.

Several hours passed as the documents were restored, during which he laid out the remainder of the potential evidence on the work bench, where it could be viewed by his entire Pokémon team as well. The last thing he placed on the table, Infernape had packaged, and looked like the remains of a large cooking pot and lid, which Infernape lingered over the longest.

"What is this?" He asked his partner, who simply continued to study the metal remains.

A quiet beep behind him drew his attention back to the Gas-Chromatography-Mass-Spectrometer, where the charred documents had finished.

Pulling the documents from the machine, he took them to his small writing desk, setting them down under a magnifying glass before returning to the work bench, taking the metal remains, he placed them in the GC-Mass Spec before returning to the desk to examine the file.

The GC-Mass Spec beeped at six o' clock PM on the dot, and Taz was still reading through the documents. Rising, he pulled out the remains and the paper with the report.

After just a moment of examining the report, Taz was carefully looking at the pot and lid. Mightyena padded over and looked curiously at the pot.

"There was Pokémon DNA on the inside of the pot, boy. Pichu, hand me a swab?"

As the small yellow rodent handed the long q-tip over, Taz carefully wiped the inside of the pot before moving to another work bench, where, with Pichu's assistance, he began a series of tests for testing the DNA, and once he had separated the DNA from the other contents of the pot's interior, placed it in the DNA sequencing record system before returning to his desk to finish reading through Professor Birch's research on Pokémon Types, allowing his mind to wander.

At eight o' clock PM, the DNA sequence record system beeped twice before a Pokémon cry emitted from its speakers, causing Taz and all of his Pokémon to look up at the ten by ten screen, on which was a familiar picture. Taz pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number quickly.

"Norman, how is the Bonsly?"

"Not well, Taz. Doctor isn't sure he is gonna make it. I was just getting ready to head home for the night; I have Keegan here to watch over him though."

As he talked, Taz was punching buttons on the record system, pulling up the known moves list, pieces of the puzzle falling into place.

"Norman, Infernape brought a pot home from the lab that had Bonsly DNA inside, and had residue of superglue on it according to the GC-Mass Spec." As he spoke, the computer brought the results onto the screen.

"Okay? What does that mean?"

"Norman, Bonsly can learn the move Explosion."

"No way…"

"Bonsly wasn't there on accident. Bonsly was the bomb that set the lab on fire. Bonsly was the weapon."

"Those bastards…."

"I gotta go Norman."

"Bye."

Taz moved across the room to the World Registration System and powered it up, touching the screen to activate the Pokedex system, setting the computer to search for any entries from the past three weeks for a Bonsly in Hoenn Region before checking his watch. 8:45. Taz returned to the work bench and resumed his work while the Pokedex entry search began its five hour process.

It was going to be a long night.


End file.
